


Diamond in the Rough

by ProwlingThunder



Series: Jackals and Gems [1]
Category: Saint Seiya
Genre: Gen, Gold Cancer Saint, Guardianship, Pre-Series, Reincarnated Gods, Slavery, hidden domains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-25 15:13:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3815110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProwlingThunder/pseuds/ProwlingThunder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anastasios finds a forgotten gem in the worst of places.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Diamond in the Rough

**Author's Note:**

> Set a decade or two before the main series, with the generation before those in canon.

Strictly speaking, he had always felt that fighting with one's Cosmos was a form of cheating. Every day average humans did not have the luxury of the added boost, and the precious few who did often had not benefited from the teachings on how to use it. There was also the fact that he was rather fond of watching how relatively helpless men truly struggled to attain what had come to him easily; the sort of strive, and the expression of accomplishment, was a truly great thing indeed.

Still, even for one such as himself, watching one of the _sklávoi_ be victorious and then get attacked once more galled at him. He could not think of them as less then himself, for that was truly where he had once been.

Anastasios shoved himself through the throng of Greek _doulempóro̱n_ , and wondered when the practice might die out. It had been outlawed, he'd heard, in the world beyond the hidden domains of the _Theíos_ , and indeed inside many of those. But in domains such as this, in the fringes of Apóllo̱n's most hidden city of the Sun, one could still find slave trading in abundance. _Indentured servitude_ , indeed.

Nevertheless, Anastasios could often pass unmolested through most of the domains of other gods; he was Athi̱ná's servant and protector, the famed and dangerous _Karkínos Anastasios_ , and few would tangle with one who could attack directly one's soul.

His fellow Greeks hesitated, Apóllo̱n or not; the mark of his station, of Karkínos, was not a hidden sort. The _Aigýptios_ did not hesitate, likely barely saw him, and attacked the monster with the whip first, an angry cry falling off his tongue. Calls for the man's life nearly drowned it from Anastasios' ears. It wasn't a language that he knew- it wasn't even the Arabic, seeming older and more powerful, and he knew without looking that this particular _Aigýptios_ was important. When he turned, startled just as the others by the attack, he knew that they could not be allowed to kill him.

Wrapped up in the visage of sun-kissed skin and a too tight, too small human form, Anastasios saw the jackal-hound.

There was a flurry of movement, and the jackal-hound was lost under the guise of a human once more- human body, human soul- and many, many Greeks.

It was nearly an hour before the _Aigýptios_ was restrained, and he'd fought off a good deal of his regular attackers before Anastasios grew horribly bored and demanded, commanded, him to settle and behave. It hadn't even taken him much Cosmos to force the jackal proper, detailing just how untrained the wild Cosmos truly was.

This was a forgotten gem in the rough, and Anastasios was still young enough to believe he would become a diamond with care.

**Author's Note:**

> Glossary
> 
> sklávoi - slave  
> doulempóro̱n - slavers  
> Theíos - Divine  
> Apóllo̱n - Apollo  
> Athi̱ná - Athena  
> Karkínos - Cancer  
> Aigýptios – Egyptian


End file.
